Welcome Summer!

 We celebrated the First Day of Summer with apple juice pops on the porch and tried to go to the Splash Pad in town, but it was not running (which really stinks for the first day of summer).  Instead we came back home, played in the awesome sprinkler I built!!! and made homemade ice cream in my amazing ice cream maker!

YEA, SUMMER!

Splashy Signs of Summer

You know "summer" is here (even though it's not yet June 21) when the Splash Pad opens!  We are fortunate to have this free water park at our city park!

 Dad trying his hardest to get one of the kids

under the water dumping bucket.

 Sarah chilling out on the sidelines.

 Time to schedule our next trip!

It's Hot!

I love my little country family!

A friend recently called the garden hose in her front yard their white trash swimmin' pool. This is even better - I threw down a tarp first so we'd have puddles to play in (and to keep the fire ants off the baby) while the chickens stood in the shade watching!

Oh yeah, it was well received and once again I earned the title of "Best Mom!" And that's all that matters.
Now their cool little bodies are inside. One is at the dining table, buck necked, playing with his Legos. The next one is in her undies having a tea party on the couch. And the last one is in her diaper eating puffs off the floor. And I put them there.

Oh yeah, I love my life. : )

Fun Stuff for the Kids

My mother-in-law recently gave me a compliment, saying "You think up such fun stuff for the kids to do!" While I do consider myself a creative person, a lot of the credit goes to everyone else who shares their creative ideas. The internet is a great place to get ideas, so today I thought I'd share some of my favorite websites & kids craft blogs with you.


A couple of week's ago, I stumbled across another neat blog: Unplug Your Kids. "Mom Unplugged" posts a weekly theme for her Unplugged Project on the site and encourages others to join in the fun. I'm behind getting it posted - Last week's theme was garden, so I let David help me water our little garden. He had so much fun being in control of the hose and making mud! Oh, and the plants did get a little water. He also added a little pinwheel & an iron truck filled with gravel to our flower bed.

Another great source for kids craft ideas is the Kids Craft Weekly newsletter. Sign up for email delivery of the free newsletter on the website. Australian mom, Amber, also has some of the project printables on the website and some helpful crafting related articles for your enjoyment! Participants are encouraged to share photos of the projects from the newsletter at the Kids Craft Weekly Flickr Group. This sponge crab idea came from a recent newsletter featuring animals to craft. This project was a little bit over David's skill level, so I did most of it, but he loves crabs so much that he has had a ball playing with it. I found one of the cats playing with it last night, too!

Scrumdilly-Do! has all sorts of fun things to do - craft projects, artwork, book recommendations, recipes - and she calls the little people "kidlets!" Gotta love that, right Dad? Our version of her art in parts project is in-progress. This painting is done over a few days with the paper folded a different direction each time. I think we've got a few more days to add to our piece before it's finished. She also hosts a Flickr group by the same name to showcase kids projects.

Fireworks painting was also from Scrumdilly-Do's archive, but I saw it at The Crafty Crow. If you've got time to visit only one kids crafting blog, make it The Crafty Crow! "Bella Dia" finds the best in kids projects and gives you the links to the how-to pages with each post. You'll find art & crafts, recipes, nature projects, pretend play ideas, party themes! Of course, there's also a Crafty Crow Flickr Group.

Now, if you have lots & lots of free time, all of those websites I gave you also have lots of other links to follow to more websites & blogs, more ideas & samples than you'll ever be able to see in an average Mom's lifetime! Click away!

We also take advantage of fun programs like local VBS and this week we went to the Preschool Music Fun Day at church. More pictures here, then enjoy the video below.

PS - I'll announce the winner

in the CPR Teddy Jr. giveaway tonight...

there's still a little time to enter!

The Splash Pad is Open!

We made our first Splash Pad trip of the summer on Friday evening. Elizabeth was too small last year, so this was her first time ever!

David had a ball running around, splashing, getting splashed & playing with the other kids. You never knew what water jet he would be sitting on running through, or aiming at himself!

Elizabeth was a little slow to get comfortable with the splashing water, but warmed up to the concept before too long. Then she spotted some kids playing basketball at the neighboring BB court. In this clip, she's watching them yelling, "BALL!"

Check my Flickr for more photos from the Splash Pad.